Saudi Aramco is the energy company founded in 1933 that operates Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves.
The company began as California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, created after Saudi Arabia granted an oil concession to Standard Oil of California. Its name later changed to Arabian American Oil Company, shortened to Aramco. Saudi Arabia gradually took ownership, completing nationalization in the 1980s.
Saudi Aramco is formally the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. It is headquartered in Dhahran and remains one of the world’s largest integrated energy businesses, with operations spanning crude-oil production, refining, petrochemicals and distribution.
A common mix-up is treating Aramco as only an oil producer. It also owns refining and chemicals interests and has one of the largest daily crude-production capacities in the industry. Its 2019 stock-market listing made it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies.